Monster Monday - Bloodripper

The ranger's head snapped to the side, catching a faint gurgling that she took off towards. Her party followed hot on her heels, racing to the entrance of an alley. In the dingy domain, the four watched as a sallow-skinned man straightened over a collapsed corpse. Slender fingers nimbly danced in the air in a beckoning motion, calling forth a crimson liquid that gathered in a dripping orb above his palm. He paused, noting the intruders and sighed. Again, his fingers danced as the blood flowed and shifted around his hand to form into wickedly curved blade that the vampire twirled in a masterful demonstration before pointing it at the startled heroes.

Illustration by SethMonster

 Steeped in skill and sorcery, this sinister soldier sends slayers to a sudden cessation with succinct swipes and slashes from a sanguine sword, shaped of their succor.

With this being the months of spooks and scares, I'm going to try to follow up each Friday with a monster they would hunter. Since Blade the vampire hunter was this past Friday, here's a fresh, new sort of vampire for him to hunt down! The art for this is provided by SethMonster and you can see the video for it over on YouTube!

The vampires have a couple of manipulators and casters already in their ranks, so my original idea was to build a brute for them, but one that had a hollow in its body that it could use to entrap foes within and treat them as a living blood bag. However, that idea was seemingly already taken by the bloodbrother from Starfinder 1e, and so I had to pivot from that. I instead landed on the idea of a vampire that used blood for more than just sustenance. The edgily-named bloodripper is able to turn the blood of its victims into weapons, cultivating it into a weapon fit for its skill. With all that, the bloodripper is designed as magical striker, which we can see in its high attack, high-damage blood blade and with his host of spells that all use a high DC. These spells have a focus on a necromantic bent as well as inflicting persistent bleed, as we see with the likes of bone spray and flense, but the big thing for the bloodripper is its vampiric feast and the slightly overleveled call the blood. The latter was a bit too good to pass up on with the quickened condition it potentially offers the bloodripper, but it may end up needing to use it for those temporary Hit Points.

Because the bloodripper needs temporary Hit Points so that it can Form Blood Blade and craft its crimson cutlass. This costs 10 temporary Hit Points but can be further modified with 5 other increments of temp HP to add traits to it, continually modifying it to make a weapon to fit whatever situation the bloodripper finds itself in. You may be thinking that it might be hard for the bloodripper to draw its blood blade when the heroes are likely to deplete its temporary Hit Points as quickly as it gains it, but our vicious vampire has Cling to Life, allowing it to prioritize the lifeblood it has stolen over its own while also accruing a sizable blood pool. However, the exception to this is when the bloodripper is afflicted with vitality damage, which interferes with its necromantic nature and prevents from being unable to use this effect. This makes it a fun piece of knowledge to give to your heroes if they don't already know what to ask for. As another way to help the bloodripper gain some temp HP outside of its spells, it has Open Vein, which is actually inspired by the Exsanguinate feat from the recently released Sanguimancer archetype. The last of the bloodripper's unique abilities if Predator's Advantage though it isn't entirely original - it actually comes from the deinonychus. An ability like this on a martially inclined vampire feels like a natural fit, so I didn't want to pass up on adding it as a generally passive effect - though maybe its a little cheap when the bloodripper could just add the tearing trait to its blood blade to take advantage of this.

You might notice that there are a metric ton of abilities I didn't cover and that is because those are all innate abilities of true vampires. I've already adjusted them to fit the bloodripper's design and level such as only using a moderate value for its Dominate and having Drink Blood grant 10 temporary Hit Points, akin to the level 6 vampire count. It also has the ability to Change Shape into a giant bat with a high attack bonus and moderate damage, but those cover the changes I've really made to its effects. The Vampire Vulnerabilities are important to keep in mind given all the defensive effects that it does have in place. It also still has the likes of Children of the Night, Mist Escape, Create Servitor, and Turn to Mist to round out its vampiric abilities.

PF2e Bloodripper

Blue's D&D Bloodripper

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Count the Odds: The heroes have run afoul of a vampire count or crossed paths with a vampire mastermind. Their attempts at challenging this ancient horror is further complicated by the bodyguard or enforcer of the vampiric noble, a bloodripper or two depending on the encounter. The bloodripper runs interference for its master, engaging the heroes directly and potentially holding them down for its master.

Carved From Crimson: One of the more martially inclined heroes, such as a fighter, becomes a target of the bloodripper. The bloodripper might feature some extra attacks or abilities based on other combat-focused classes, such as Vicious Swing or Skirmish Strike. However, don't overequip this bloodripper because if it drinks the blood of a martial character, it can copy a feat of the target to use in combat.

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Have a monstrous Monday!